Box Score OMAHA, Neb. -- The Omaha volleyball team pulled off another five-set thriller Sunday afternoon, toppling Oral Roberts 3-2 (25-23, 20-25, 25-20, 19-25, 25-23) at Baxter Arena. With their second win of the weekend, the Mavericks improved to 7-21 (4-10 Summit League). The Golden Eagles dropped to 14-14 (6-8).
The match marked Omaha's seventh five-set victory of the year and was also Senior Day to celebrate senior duo
Elise Brown and
Nicki Carson.
Freshman
Chloe Dousette led the way with a team-high 21 kills on .340 hitting. Junior
Sydney O'Shaughnessy tallied her team-leading 12th double-double of the season, courtesy of a career-high 58 assists with 15 digs, three kills and three service aces.
Brown also had a double-double -- her second this weekend -- with 13 kills and 14 digs alongside two blocks. Freshman
Ellie Brown added 14 kills while attacking at a .370 clip and adding a pair of solo blocks, and junior
Amanda Conlin had eight kills on .353 hitting with a team-best three blocks.
Three more Mavericks had double-figure defensive efforts, as
Olivia Spanton finished with 15 digs,
Hannah Angeli put up 14 more and
Ashley Smith had another 13. Angeli also had three aces and five kills for the day.
Oral Roberts was led by a match-high 33 kills from Laura Milos, who chipped in 16 digs for a double-double. Teammate Lucija Bojanjac also had a double-double performance with 50 assists and 12 digs, and Taylan Nero finished with a match-high eight blocks.
As a team, Omaha held the edge in hitting percentage, .256 to .254, and digs, 76 to 69. Oral Roberts outblocked the Mavericks, 9.0 to 6.0.
A close first set included nine ties between UNO and ORU, with the Mavericks capitalizing on two Golden Eagle errors to break the final stall at 21-21 to go up by two. Carson executed with two kills over the final four plays to seal it for Omaha, which won the set 25-23.
In the second set, Oral Roberts got out of a 19-19 deadlock thanks to Shelby Cox, who put down a kill and added an ace to make it 21-19 and force a UNO timeout. After two Maverick miscues, a Milos kill brought it to game point, and Bojanjac closed with an ace serve to give ORU a 25-20 win that tied the match at 1-1.
The third set was another battle, as the score tied six times up to 16-16. Omaha then went on a 4-0 run with a Dousette kill, an ORU attack error and back-to-back O'Shaughnessy aces to make it 20-16. Four Golden Eagle errors and an
Elise Brown kill helped the Mavericks seal the win, 25-20.
Oral Roberts answered with a 25-19 win in game four, evening the match at 2-2. The Golden Eagles never trailed, and Milos led the offensive attack with 10 kills and no attack errors for a .769 hitting effort.
The match came down to a highly entertaining fifth set, which featured 15 ties and three lead changes as neither team could build a lead of more than three. Milos had another nine kills for ORU, while Dousette led the Mavericks with six.
Knotted at 12-12, kills by Angeli and junior
Amanda Conlin pushed it to match point at 14-12, but two more from Milos tied it once more. Finally, after trading points through nine ties, the Mavericks nailed down back-to-back kills from freshman
Ellie Brown and Dousette to cap it at 25-23 for the 3-2 match win.
Omaha returns to action on Tuesday, Nov. 8, traveling to Denver at 8 p.m. CT. Links to live stats will be available on OMavs.com.